Gypsy Party Fortune Teller Fish Party Favors: The Destiny of Things, Story 541

Gypsy Party Fortune Teller Fish Party Favors:  The Destiny of Things, Story 541

What fun!  A gypsy party!

Add "gypsy" party to how to use of fortune teller fish for another themed party favor!  Available here from 10 to 100 count.  Photo via JunkDrawerAndMore

Here are the two notes I received:

One with the order in note to buyer:

Thanks! These will be GREAT for my upcoming Gypsy Party! Happy Easter! Katherine

And one later in review:

This was a most WONDERFUL purchase from JunkDrawerandMore! The handwritten note that accompanied my order was truly unique and quite entertaining to read. Included were many little stickers and happy graphic arts items. The price was very affordable and the shipping speed was spot on! Thanks so much for this terrific buying experience! Highly recommend this shop!

I had never thought to use these for a gypsy party, but they would fit right in!  Off the top of my head, here are some other themed parties these have been used as party favors for:  fisherman, sushi, carnival, magic, circus, beach, pool, mermaid, pirate, nautical, bass fishing, retirement, weddings and birthdays!  These are very versatile fish!
 

Saying Goodbye:  I first used these as a teaching prop for my students when I was teaching because everyone loves a dancing fish!  It was how I introduced magic themed teaching to my class, which was really chemistry, math and other sciences.  I had a hoard of these leftover after I retired and soon found out they are our one of our best sellers!

Everything is easy and fun about these!  They have the instructions on how to use them, printed right on the fish and your love fortune is determined on how the fish moves in the palm of your hand and that's on the back of the handy dandy envelope it comes inside with such cool old fashioned graphics on the front of it.  Available here from 10 to 100 count.  Photo via JunkDrawerAndMore

What I Learned:

1.  To be thankful for my hoard because I have learned that letting go of it has become so much fun!  And believe me, I didn't think that in the beginning, as a matter of fact, each hoarded item that left was painful and some even left me crying!  which was very cathartic!  I've not only purged many hoarded items one by one, but let go of painful memories and emotions that I had forgotten all about and later I could recover and heal from them, since they were brought forward to my attention.

2.  I've let go of thousands of hoarded items and now I can safely say that I've become less fearful to the emotions and memories that come with letting go and sometimes look forward to them because I never what I'm going to learn from each item, until it goes to it's new life and forever home!

3.  These fish aren't hoard anymore, they are what I call re-hoard because I don't feel the need to hoard these anymore and now we just list them as a labor of love.  A reminder to myself that so much of my hoard has been a success to selling on my online shops! 

4.  There are several best sellers items that are re-hoard that we won't be restocking anymore, like cocktail animal and mermaid toppers and Twilight Zone fortune teller cards.  It's time to move on or at least I'd like to move on, but my life partner, he still wants to continue listing my hoard!  Can you believe that?

Available here from 10 to 100 count.  Photo via JunkDrawerAndMore

Thank you Katherine, Etsy shop owner of SMELLABRATION for sharing your fun gypsy story and adding to the list of how to use these through themes! Read her fun and funny profile here, it's interesting to see how her her business started and it's organic!  Visit her beautiful shop of one of a kind handmade organic scent-ual scents, eco friendly packaging that looks adorably wonderful and more, here. 

Visit some of my favorites, like this organic trio of oils, here! It looks like a little sample pack and she and her husband, William, explain how each ingredient will enhance your health.  If I were to splurge, I'd order this kit of 16 different dried flowers in vials, here.  And if I were on a budget I'd order the 10 organic set of dried cooking herbs, here.

Did I mention that everything is from her organic garden?  What a dream come true because I'd like to follow in their footsteps.  Well, not the organic online store part, but the organic growing flowers, veggies and herbs!  Last chance to check out their shop here and smellabrate all the beauty and talent!  They also will make you a custom scent or inhaler for stress relief or any other occasion!

Speaking of herbs and such, my latest favorite tea is a couple teaspoons of ground coriander seeds, ground cardamon, ginger and pepper seeds to taste with a heaping tablespoon of honey!  It sounds a little weird, but tastes great.  It's a spin off of Indian coffee, called Sukku.

These are the Twilight Zone fortune card slips we will no longer be stocking, we only have one complete set and some random mix ones left in stock here. 
Photo via JunkDrawerAndMore

I had reached my goal of listing 180 items on each shop and made my new goal o list 200 items on each shop!  But sales picked up last week and a lot of hoard items sold, so I'm back to listing to 180 again, which I did this morning. 

Visit our spring cleaning sale of 20% off at all our shops at the moment.  There is only 36 hours until the sale ends at VintageToGoEasy.  They are kind of rolling shop sales, which just seemed to happen again, but I'm pretty sure all the sales are until sometime mid May or sooner.

Free shipping doesn't seem to be working for our shops.  I tried several experiments at each shop using mainly free shipping to see what happens and it seems our repeat sales do much better without free shipping.  I was going to change everything back to regular shipping, but this weekend, Etsy is promoting a free shipping deal, so we will try it and see if it helps sales.  NOT!!!!

The Etsy promo sale is for buyers and is random and are catering to shops that aren't using free shipping, which is weird since Etsy is so into "free" shipping.  From my understanding of what I read, if a buyer spends $25 at a shop that doesn't have free shipping and you are a randomly chosen buyer that spend $25 in shipping, Etsy will pay for your shipping, if you are randomly chosen.  Did anyone out there read it differently?

How to include the new Etsy shop fees, plus their commission for shipping now and USPS fees increased in Jan of 2019 too by zones, so 4 oz now costs $4.00 to ship to the east coast including tracking and insurance. Yowza!  And on top of all that sales have been down and cross marketing (faving/liking) has changed also, so I'm not sure if cross marketing is even helpful anymore.

For instance do shop hearts and number of followers, even matter anymore?  I never fully understood how all that worked anyway, but now I'm wondering if hearts on listings and shop hearts and followers even help a shop anymore.  Anyone out there can help in either departments?  I'm still confused about that!  Thank you in advance! 

Click on the shop names to visit new hoard listed weekly: HoarderRehab with 180 items, The Destiny of Things- 181 items, VintageToGoEasy - 181 items and JunkDrawerAndMore - 177 items.   

Maybe you'll find something and give it new life and a new home!  Thanks for looking!

 Many Etsy buyers have used these for gypsy fortune teller themed parties and weddings,.  We have either a full set of 52, which is one of each kind or random sets in 6 or more.  These are originally from Madame X or Swami napkin disperners that were in road side cafes in the 50s and shown in Twilight Zone's episode Nick of Time with William Shatner, available here.

Photo via The Destiny of Things.

Thank you for visiting my Hoarder Rehab and The Destiny of Things!  Happy Friday!

My Childhood Bone Bracelet is a Beautiful Choker Now: The Destiny of Things, Story 540

 My Childhood Bone Bracelet is a Beautiful Choker Now:  The Destiny of Things, Story 540

Look how an Etsy shop owner transformed it!  It's beyond amazing!  FROM THIS:

This one has sold, but I have another almost like it here.  

Photo via VintageToGoEasy

Here is the email I received:

Hello again! I hope this "reincarnation" of your precious and treasured bracelet makes you happy. Cheers, Marika

www.etsy.com/listing/700330421/father-and-son-custom-designer-choker?ref...

TO THIS!

Order it here at Marika'sSugarFree Jewelry on Etsy.

Photo via Marika'sSugarFree

What a transformation, right?   Here is what I wrote back:

OMG What a reincarnation! Unbelievable, I don't even recognize my childhood bracelet! Thank you for remembering to share it's beautiful transformation with me! It makes me so happy! I'll share it on my Hoarder Rehab and The Destiny of Things Blog and link it to your shop!

Best to you and many happy sales,
Kennedy

Here's a close up:

Order it here at Marika'sSugarFree Jewelry on Etsy.

Photo via Marika'sSugarFree

I still can't believe that is part of my old childhood bracelet!  What an amazing choker.... I love the abalone cross dangles.  Can you see the details on it?  for example the tiny gold beads that make the jump rings for the cross dangles?  If I could wear jewelry I'd be thinking of ordering this back in all it's glorious reincarnation!!!  I just love choker necklaces!  and used to wear one a lot when I could wear jewelry.

Saying Goodbye:  I am now allergic to most metals in jewelry and have been waiting almost a decade to be able to wear my jewelry again, but now it doesn't really matter because every time I try and wear my favorite pieces of jewelry, they just feel heavy now and I feel better not wearing jewelry.

Here's what it looks like on:

Available here at Marika'sSugarFree Jewelry on Etsy. Marika also took many beautiful photos of all the details of this choker necklace, so be sure and look at all the photos!

Photo via Marika'sSugarFree

What I Learned:

1.   The creativeness of Etsy shop owners and Etsy buyers never cease to amaze me!  And I have so much evidence to prove it, lol.  I have plenty of posted stories on my blog and I have several more to write about in my "draft" pile!  Yes, my hoard of blog stories need to be released, now if I can only find more time to do so!

2.  I've been spending too much of my time spring cleaning, which I guess is good because I've come to another hoarder epiphany.....  I have way too much stuff to either craft with or let go and I'll need to start prioritizing what I can list and what I'll need to donate!  My second experimental purge pile made it from the door to the trunk of my car.  (I still can't use my truck because it is still housing too much of my camping and other hoard!  There's just room to sit in thre!)

My first purge pile turned into all my Etsy shops, so let's see where this second purge pile actually goes!

3.  So I'm thinking about how to spend less time listing because to list 5-6 items a week means taking 8 to 10 photos of each item to list, which takes about 2-3 hours including editing them, then actually listing one item can take me 30 to 60 minutes, especially if I do research on the item with a price comparison and then pricing the item, depending on it's wear or if it's new old stock, etc....  it takes quite some time.....which means to cut costs I'll need to spend less time in all areas, like taking less pictures, not the full 10 Etsy allows, writing less on listing descriptions by depending on photos and then pricing everything dirt cheap!

Cross my fingers and hope I can do this!  because I like to take my time and be ultra thorough!

Have you been spring cleaning and has it made a difference in your life?  It sure has in mine!  However finding a solution to my hoard is still unanswered.  The best thing I can think of right now is to stop adding to it!  and donate what I can let go of without crying!  Okay, not crying, it's more like letting go without doubt!

I mean, can I possibly sell all my hoard in this life time and is that how I want to spend the rest of my living days?

 Here is my second bone stretch bracelet, which I bought when I thought I had lost my first one!  I was already hoarding back in childhood and high school! Available  here.  Photo via VintageToGoEasy

Thank you Etsy shop owner, Marika for sharing your lovely story and making my childhood bracelet into an unrecognizably gorgeous possibility!   Read her interesting profile here, visit here beautiful shop of one of a kind handmade jewelry here.  Visit some of my favorites, besides the obvious one! I love all her jade pieces and one is here.  This necklace would match my jade bracelet, here.  

And for the grand finale, you've got to see her bead art, this one consists of 44,064 Delica seed beads stitched to make a wolf tapestry of her flag ship!  It's absolutely beyond stunning!  HERE!  It took her a year to make it and it would take me 10 years and that's even if I finished it!

I have to say this again, Marika is an amazing artist and many of her pieces are for the bold, but she also has made pieces that are more subtle.  All are lovable and unique!  Check out here shop here and see all the beauty and talent!  She also explains the metaphysical components of all the materials she uses, which is a bonus in my eyes!

   

 Here is the choker I used to wear until I became allergic to metals, available here.

Photo via Hoarder Rehab

I reached my goal of listing 180 items on each shop, so my new goal is to list 200 items on each shop!  Sales are at a trickle for the past few weeks, but still thank my lucky stars that at least some hoard keeps selling!   Sales usually slow down around after Father's day, but this year it seems to have started before Mother's day.

Visit our spring cleaning sale of 20% off at all our shops at the moment.  They are kind of rolling shop sales, which just seemed to happen again, but I'm pretty sure all the sales are until sometime mid May or sooner.

I've been trying to adopt this new way of thinking, "Be willing to forgo all perceptions of gain, desire or profit and thereby be willing to be of selfless service to life in all it's expressions," but it's really difficult for me, but I've been taking baby steps about it and with each relisting I do my best to lower the price. Anyone out there have any suggestions to help me?

Free shipping doesn't seem to be working for our shops.  I tried several experiments at each shop using mainly free shipping to see what happens and it seems our repeat sales do much better without free shipping.  I was going to change everything back to regular shipping, but this weekend, Etsy is promoting a free shipping deal, so we will try it and see if it helps sales.

How to include the new Etsy shop fees, plus their commission for shipping now and USPS fees increased in Jan of 2019 too by zones, so 4 oz now costs $4.00 to ship to the east coast including tracking and insurance. Yowza!  And on top of all that sales have been down and cross marketing (faving/liking) has changed also, so I'm not sure if cross marketing is even helpful anymore.  For instance does shop hearts and number of followers, even matter anymore?  I never fully understood how all that worked anyway, but now I'm wondering if hearts on listings and shop hearts and followers even help a shop anymore.  Anyone out there can help in either departments?  Thank you in advance! 

Click on the shop names to visit new hoard listed weekly: HoarderRehab with 181 items, The Destiny of Things- 181 items, VintageToGoEasy - 182 items and JunkDrawerAndMore - 181 items.   

Maybe you'll find something and give it new life and a new home!  Thanks for looking!

 I just remembered I have another bone bracelet and it's a lot thicker than both of the other ones.  It has an abstract moth or leafy face carved into each bead, available here.

Photo via The Destiny of Things

"Never allow someone to be your priority while allowing yourself to be their option."---Mark Twain

Thank you for visiting my Hoarder Rehab and The Destiny of Things!  Happy Friday!

Big Gold Cross Earrings to the Netherlands: The Destiny of Things, Story 539

Big Gold Cross Earrings to the Netherlands:  The Destiny of Things, Story 539

These made it to NL in a week!  Thank you USPS!

I had two pairs of these and both have sold out.  More religious kitsch in the section of religious drawer at JunkDrawerAndMore here.

Here is the kind email I received:

Hi Kennedy,

 

Thank you so much for the beautiful earrings  I ordered.

I really love them !

 

I was looking for a long time  for big crosses but couldn’t find them anywhere.

 

And I already got them within a week !

I really love all the things you sent with the earrings.

It just was great to unpack the package after a long day at work.

 

It really made me smile for the rest of the day.

 

Thanks again dear Kennedy !

It makes me smile for the rest of the day knowing I made someone else smile for the rest of the day!  And I didn't know big cross earrings were so hard to find!

I had two pairs of these and both have sold out.  More religious kitsch in the section of religious drawer at JunkDrawerAndMore here.

 

Saying Goodbye:  I am so thankful this went to a forever home with a new life ahead of them because I can't even remember why I have these, except maybe I was going to use them for my religious folk art from back in the 90s.

I loved making milagro crosses back then.  Those were the days when milagros were hard to find.  I have a huge collection of milagros.  I am not ready to give them up yet!

These must be hard to find, since she still bought them with the manufacturing flaw on it!  It did look like that little piece might come off with a pair of pliers and a hard tug.  More religious kitsch in the section of religious drawer here.
Photo via JunkDrawerAndMore

What I Learned:

1.  There I go again with enough craft supplies to last me several life times!  With a bizillion craft projects and ideas rolling around in my head until another several tons come rolling in to take their place. 

2.  I still have hundreds, maybe even five hundred more homeless religious medals because milagros were so difficult to find back in the 90s that I started to buy religious medals instead!  I'm not sure how many milagro crosses I thought I was going to make, but I did make at least four.  Two I gave away, one I gave to my brother and he gave it back to me and the fourth one was for myself.

I gave one to a friend who was the chief engineer of the Shelby Series One.  It was a wooden cross with the Monopoly cars on it, so he could complete his mission of making that car by it's due date, which they did with a lot help from rags and duct tape!

The second was a housewarming gift for someone with the same literal humor as I have and it was a wooden cross with a green Monopoly house in the middle and red tipped matches on each cross limb.

The third cross was a Lover's cross I made for my brother during a very bad disastrous break up, so he could one day heal and find true love.  And it worked!  He had it on his wall for three or four years and then met his wife and that was that!  He returned it to me because by then I was single and it worked for me too!

This has only 3 milagros because back in the day I had to go to San Diego to sift through Mexican folk art shops for them or very tediously look on ebay using "metal charm animals" because back then no one had even heard of milagros.  There's corn milagros on it, not just for fertility but for abundance in all things.  Available here. Photo via The Destiny of Things.

The fourth cross I made for myself because I come from a line of farmers, but I'm the only one with a brown thumb!  I made a Garden Milagro Cross to remind me of how to grow a better garden and it eventually worked too!

 

 This one has a few milagros and many sterling and silver tone charms.  The one on the top is a sterling bench charm for taking in the garden view, instead of wanting the flowers to hurry up and bloom and there is a snail on the bottom to remind me that everything moves at it's own pace.  There is even a rodent chewing at the wood to remind me that even the pests we don't like in the garden are part of our world and connected to me.  Available here.

Photo via The Destiny of Things.

Both of these crosses were in a local coffee shop art gallery last summer and I still need to write a post about that!

3.  As a recovering hoarder, I haven't been doing so well in the NOT buying department!  However, I do love my new art projects, which is basically slow stitch visible mending and I've been making a lot of textile art patches out of boro, which is Japanese cloth that has been used and mended over and over.

I made the little textile art patches as an example of how to use the boro scraps in the little mini Japanese paper books.  Funny thing, the boro textile art patches sold out in a couple days, but the books are still available here.  Each book has about 20 mini boro scraps to make the textile art patches as shown in the photo.  I'll be making more patches and listing those next week.  

Photo via Hoarder Rehab

4.  I'm been trying to let go of being so reward based.  I need rewards for all kinds of motivation, but mainly to get up at 3am.  I used to get up automatically at 3 am and got soooooo much more done and slept soooooo much better, but then I got sick and I'm back to square one.  So it's been rewards getting me up before the crack of dawn and it's been buying spree after buying spree!  I think I'm on my way to getting up early, the other day I woke up at 12:30 am feeling wide awake and ready to go and another day at 2:30 am, so hopefully I'm good to go soon without rewards!

What do you use to motivate you to start a new habit?  My numero uno motivational tool is to start a new habit with someone else and support each other, so it's more team based, but no one else wants to get up that early, lol.

Here is more of my religious folk art that carried over from Milagro Crosses. Andrei Rublev's Trinity Angels wooden icon with bead assemblage made by me, here.

Photo via The Destiny of Things.

Thank you Etsy buyer from NL for letting me know that your big cross earrings arrived so quickly and that you love them!  And the best part is the whole package gave you a smile the rest of the day!  Thank you so much!

 

Today I've been mending a two log cabin squares from a tattered frayed cutter's quilt and it's been so fun!  Time just flies by and after I post this I'm going to work on it some more.  Here are the quilt squares in their before state.

 

 I think the 2 I've been working on are more frayed and tattered than those shown in the photos and have super duper raw edges, everything I like about a cutter's quilt!  Anyways, 2 have sold and 2 are still available here.  I'll be listing more of the square's above and the one I've been mending up next week.  Photo via Hoarder Rehab

 

My goal of listing on each shop until each has 180 items had been reached at 2 shops!  I thank my lucky stars more hoard keeps selling!  So I'll be new listing again next week.

We are having 20% off spring cleaning sale at all our shops at the moment.  They are kind of rolling shop sales, which just seemed to happen again, but I'm pretty sure all the sales are until the end of April.

I've been trying to adopt this new way of thinking, "Be willing to forgo all perceptions of gain, desire or profit and thereby be willing to be of selfless service to life in all it's expressions," but it's really difficult for me and putting it in to practice is very wishy washy for me.  Which I practiced with the mini textile art patches, but maybe I priced them too low, since they are all almost sold out and 8 people have it in their cart.  Anyone out there have any suggestions to help me?

Still trying to figure out how to price items and how much I should charge for my time.  I feel carefree about the time it takes me to make things, but not so much when it comes to new listing, describing in detail, especially vintage items which usually have some sort of flaws going on and Etsy chores, like cross marketing.  Anyone out there have a reference guide from their own experiences I could try? 

How to include the new Etsy shop fees, plus their commission for shipping now and USPS fees increased in Jan of 2019 too by zones, so 4 oz now costs $4.00 to ship to the east coast including tracking and insurance. Yowza!  And on top of all that sales have been down and cross marketing (faving/liking) has changed also, so I'm not sure if cross marketing is even helpful anymore.  Anyone out there can help in either departments?  Thank you in advance!

 

Click on the shop names to visit new hoard listed weekly: HoarderRehab with 184 items, The Destiny of Things- 182 items, VintageToGoEasy - 178 items and JunkDrawerAndMore - 179 items.   

Maybe you'll find something and give it new life and a new home!  Thanks for looking!

 

 Small Saint Cecilia wall decor or for ofrenda, nicho or alter shrine.  I think the Saint is from a Vatican sticker I bought a long time ago that I duplicated using modge podge, available here.  Photo via The Destiny of Things.

 

Thank you for visiting my Hoarder Rehab and The Destiny of Things!  Happy Easter!

More Photos & Info on Sashiko Easy & Elegant Designs for Decorative Machine Embroidery Book by Mary Parker: Hoarder Rehab Review #5

More Photos & Info on Sashiko Easy & Elegant Designs for Decorative Machine Embroidery Book by Mary Parker:  Hoarder Rehab Review #5

This book has beautiful photo examples of 25 projects and over 200 sashiko designs!

Like New VTG Sashiko Book Easy Elegant Designs for Decorative Machine Embroidery by Mary Parker, available here.  Photo via Hoarder Rehab

The best part for me, is that It has 25 DIY sashiko projects with more than 100 color coded patterns and a huge sashiko pattern dictionary.  The book has 144 pages of sashiko fun and the pattern dictionary is 54 pages with 4 designs on each page.  That's over 200 designs!  They designs range from simple to traditional to intricate.

I'd show you the table contents, but all those photos are already in the listing if you want to see what's in the book by it's table of contents.

I'm just going to over the parts that interest me! lol.  Like the secret to successful machine stitching using transferring patterns is really interesting, she shares several methods on how to transfer the patterns on to fabric, I haven't tried any of the ways yet, but they seem easy enough.  It's probably the only thing I'd use from this book, besides getting inspired by the photos and the pattern dictionary.

  Like New VTG Sashiko Book Easy Elegant Designs for Decorative Machine Embroidery by Mary Parker with 20 projects and pattern dictionary, available here.  Photo via HoarderRehab

She shares at least 5 different ways to transfer sashiko patterns to fabrics of all kinds.  I lost count after 5.  I'll do an update if I try them and let you know how well they work for me.  I wish she gave brand names for the pens she uses.

 Like New VTG Sashiko Book Easy Elegant Designs for Decorative Machine Embroidery by Mary Parker with 20 projects and pattern dictionary, available here.  Photo via HoarderRehab

Out of all the projects I quickly breezed through in her book and if I had to choose one thing to make from it it would be this tote bag, but I'd most likely make it from boro and free hand the cherry blossoms, so I'm sure mine would look quite different.  More like ultra free hand wabi sabi wonky lopsided!

She does give the pattern and dimensions in inches and in cm and there are only 10 steps, so maybe I will try it my way.  Eyeballing cut and sew and then free stitching the cherry blossom sashiko.

or maybe I'd have to start off with something easier, like placemats!

We could use some new placemats and I have plenty of boro to do so.

Like New VTG Sashiko Book Easy Elegant Designs for Decorative Machine Embroidery by Mary Parker with 20 projects and pattern dictionary, available here.  Photo via HoarderRehab

Or maybe I should start off with something smaller, like coasters?

There are more photos at our shop of other projects, the larger ones, like duvet cover and a sashiko sampler on room divider screen panels, which I think would make beautiful window coverings, even blackouts.  Like New VTG Sashiko Book Easy Elegant Designs for Decorative Machine Embroidery by Mary Parker with 20 projects and pattern dictionary, available here.  Photo via HoarderRehab

We don't need coasters.  I've made some weaving pine needles, when I used to make pine needle baskets, trivets and pin cushions and they look like they'll last forever!  Moving on.... or maybe I'll be making placemats?

My other favorite part of this book is the sashiko pattern dictionary.  It's quite extensive and appears to start off with the simple ones and moves on to the more elaborate and ends with family crests, but I just browsed, I didn't really read it.  I added two photos of the intermediate traditional looking types at the shop.

Like New VTG Sashiko Book Easy Elegant Designs for Decorative Machine Embroidery by Mary Parker with 20 projects and pattern dictionary, available here.  Photo via HoarderRehab

Some of the information in the pattern dictionary will suggest which pattern will work better for your projects.  I think the one above is for the pillow shams.

 Oops a project snuck in!

I just noticed some 2 other photos have appeared that are not from the pattern dictionary, but are 2 other projects, the pillow shams and the table runner.  I'll leave them so you can see the other types of projects, just in case they inspire you too!

I wanted to put the photos in order from easiest to more elaborate, but my eyes are failing me on the small photo choices from the upload folder.

I didn't check each project because there are 25 of them, but I saw many patterns like the one above, while browsing the book to take photos.

I don't remember why I took this photo now, but at least it's another example of all the different sashiko patterns.

Saying Goodbye:  I hope this books finds a new life with someone who is interested in machine sashiko and wants to bypass all the hand stitching to machine sew and sashiko each project.

Like New VTG Sashiko Book Easy Elegant Designs for Decorative Machine Embroidery by Mary Parker with 20 projects and pattern dictionary, available here.  Photo via HoarderRehab

I hope this review is helpful to readers.  For me, I've been inspired to make some boro sashiko placemats!  I'll hand cut, free hand style sashiko and all around hand make mine.  I thank this book for it's classic sashiko beauty, motivation and the page on transferring patterns.  What about you?

However my free style sashiko is all free hand and looks more like this, lol

This is an example of my free style sashiko.  It's starting to look like some constellation or galaxy with a sun and a black hole.  This is on a large boro cloth that has mostly kantha stitching and is going to be a furoshiki type farmer's market bag.

This furoshiki boro farmer's market bag is large about 25 inches by 36 inches, so it has hand basting stitches and safety pins to keep the two layers together.  This has been my alternative to hoarding project for the past 6 years!

Here's a close up of the kantha stitching.  I found a huge tangled up ball of thread with embroidery floss and have been slowly untangling it and using the pieces to stitch on here.  I've also been embroidering random designs I see here and there.  The designs I find are usually on pottery, so I try them on here to see how they look embroidered.

Back to the last part of this book.  There are several examples of sashiko fashion clothes, so it appears to have a little bit of everything sashiko!

The book seems to have mainly home decor fabric projects, but I did see some fashion with sashiko.  Like New VTG Sashiko Book Easy Elegant Designs for Decorative Machine Embroidery by Mary Parker with 20 projects and pattern dictionary, available here.  Photo via HoarderRehab

"A very thoughtful and well-ordered introduction...A mouth-watering 'gotta try' wealth of designs and information." ---Booklist

Thank you for visiting my Hoarder Rehab and The Destiny of Things!  Happy Friday!